BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to assess the surface characterization and frictional resistance between stainless steel brackets and two types of orthodontic wires made of stainless steel and nickel-titanium alloys after immersion in a chlorhexidine-containing prophylactic agent.MethodsStainless steel orthodontic brackets with either stainless steel (SS) or heat-activated nickel-titanium (Ni-Ti) wires were immersed in a 0.2% chlorhexidine and an artificial saliva environment for 1.5 h. The frictional force was measured on a universal testing machine with a crosshead speed of 10 mm/min over a 5-mm of archwire. The surface morphology of bracket slots and surface roughness of archwires after immersion in chlorhexidine were also characterized using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and an atomic force microscope (AFM), respectively.ResultsThere was no significant difference in the frictional resistance values between SS and Ni-Ti wires immersed in either chlorhexidine or artificial saliva. The frictional resistance values for the SS and Ni-Ti wires immersed in 0.2% chlorhexidine solution were not significantly different from that inartificial saliva. No significant difference in the average surface roughness for both wires before (as-received) and after immersion in either chlorhexidine or artificial saliva was observed.ConclusionsOne-and-half-hour immersion in 0.2% chlorhexidine mouthrinse did not have significant influence on the archwires surface roughness or the frictional resistance between stainless steel orthodontic brackets and archwires made of SS and Ni-Ti. Based on these results, chlorhexidine-containing mouthrinses may be prescribed as non-destructive prophylactic agents on materials evaluated in the present study for orthodontic patients.

No abstract

We present a general methodology for the design of continuous-time sigma-delta modulators with a lowpass signal transfer function without peaking. We also propose two new feedforward architectures exhibiting significantly lower sensitivity to coefficient mismatch compared with conventional feedforward structures.

No abstract